G6 meeting
in Stratford upon Avon, UK - all spin no ConclusionsThe UK Home Office has put out a press
release on the G6 meeting in the UK last week - Meeting of the
interior ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and
the United Kingdom.

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:

"All the Home Office has made available is spin -
not a set of proper Conclusions as were released after the G6
meeting in Germany in March 2006"

The interior ministers of six European nations met in Britain
this week and agreed to innovative and immediate actions to tackle
terrorism and organised crime.

The meeting in Stratford-upon-Avon, hosted by the Home Secretary,
John Reid, brought together the interior ministers of France,
Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK - known collectively
as the 'G6' - to develop concrete plans on quick and effective
methods to make their countries safer.

The meeting addressed complex issues, and resulted in widespread
agreement on methods for tackling terrorism, immigration, smuggling
and organised crime. The ministers also exchanged information
on known terrorist suspects, and worked on the idea of creating
joint support teams, should any of the nations face a serious
terrorist attack.

Fighting terrorism together

The ministers agreed that all six countries should not only have
their own anti-terrorism plans, but that they should also prepare
joint responses. Crucially, they've all agreed to work even more
closely together to stop terror attacks from happening in the
first place.

Among counter-terrorism methods discussed, the ministers agreed
to share their individual research on explosives, with a particular
focus on liquid explosives, now considered to be a major new
threat from terror groups.

Dr Reid said, 'This is a developing area where the terrorists
are trying to get ahead of us, and we have to get ahead of them.'

He said the number of serious plots in Britain 'numbered in
the tens, rather than the twos', and he repeated recent warnings
that another attack on the UK was 'very likely'. He said many
terror groups used websites to organise their attacks so decisions
made by the G6 would help combat internet terror traffic. 'We
have to do much more together to make the internet a hostile
environment to the terrorist,' he added.

conduct research into more high-tech airport screening devices
to keep travel safe

Fighting organised crime

The G6 ministers agreed that the battle against organised crime
is a serious priority throughout Europe. Major crime groups are
known to be smuggling people, drugs, and weapons, and all six
countries view that as a significant threat to all nations. Because
this kind of crime ignores borders, countries must work together
to combat it.

They agreed to build a practical, cross-European plan to tackle
so-called 'carousel fraud', which involves VAT scans on an international
level, and is thought to cost the UK approximately £2bn
each year. The Home Secretary said it was possible that such
sophisticated methods of fraud were being used to raise money
for terrorist groups.

'Today was the first step in getting further information and
cooperation on investigating this across Europe,' he said.

The project to tackle people smuggling will be based on Operation
Pentameter, which involved all 55 police forces in the UK and
Ireland in an effort to disrupt the trafficking of women, often
held against their will, for the black market sex industry. The
operation earlier this year resulted in 232 arrests for crimes
including rape, assault, trafficking and false imprisonment.

Dr Reid called human trafficking 'the sort of crime that I
believe is a stain on a civilised country.' And added, 'It is
a relatively recent phenomenon, and a fast-growing crime, so
we need to re-double our efforts and dedicate ourselves to combating
it.'

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